A solid state drive (SSD) is designed to provide reliable and high performance storage of user data across a flash-based memory system containing a host interface controller (such as a Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA)) interface) and a number of memory multi-chip packages (MCPs), where each MCP contains a stack of NAND flash dies and, optionally, a flash memory controller. In a typical SATA-based SSD application, a central host controller accesses multiple attached devices (targets/NAND device clusters) on each flash interface channel, and across several flash interface channels. A typical central host controller would include a SATA interface and four, eight, or more flash interface channels. These channels may utilize a standard flash interface protocol, such as ONFI. The Open NAND Flash Interface (ONFI) protocol provides support for parallel access to multiple NAND dies (or “logical units” (LUNs)) on a single “target” or NAND multi-chip stack on a single shared ONFI channel. Each ONFI target typically controls 2, 4, or 8 NAND dies. Storage management software running on the central host controller manages a virtual memory space that is mapped to flash blocks in the physical dies in each of the attached MCP's. The central host controller and the storage management software utilize parallel access and efficient usage of the available flash devices to optimize SSD drive performance, endurance, and cost.